Describing the decision as “shocking”, she said that the decision would put poor parties like the Trinamool Congress in a disadvantage.

In her Facebook post she said: “I am not only surprised but also shocked to see the attitude of the outgoing government on such an important policy matter. It is a long pending demand for state funding for election expenditure as part of electoral reforms. Instead, the Centre has decided to hike the poll expenditure limit. The decision will help capitalists and bigger political parties who have enough money and can always spend crores for their election campaigns. What will poor political parties like us will do?”

However the opposition, while welcoming the decision said there had to be a proper monitoring of expenses.

“Mamata’s assertion that TMC is a poor party is a blatant lie. They are rich with Saradha money. They have made money from other sources as well. The decision was absolutely proper,’’ Pradip Bhattacharya, Congress MP told The Indian Express.

The CPM too welcomed the government’s decision. “It was good, but we have seen monitoring of expenses is not done as people often cross the limit. The ECI should check on that,’’ Rabin Deb, CPM state secretariat member said.

BJP’s state president Rahul Sinha echoed similar sentiments.”We are a small party here and we can’t afford to spend that amount of money. What is needed is proper monitoring of expenses,’’ he added.